Near Misses (Part One)
by hso104
Summary: Set immediately after the events of the season 5 finale. #SixSeasonsandaMovie


"Holy crap! Did you guys see this? An asteroid roughly the size of an Olympic swimming pool narrowly missed hitting the Earth!" Britta read the news scroll on CNN as she sat in one of the chairs in Abed and Annie's apartment.

Annie, seated in the chair next to Britta, looked up from the popcorn bowl resting on her lap and sought out Abed's gaze. He raised his eyebrows at her twice in quick succession and returned to perusing the movies on the shelf below the TV. Annie cocked her head to the side with a furrowed brow before being distracted by Shirley entering the apartment.

"I brought brownies!" she crooned with excitement as she and Andre walked into the living area.

It had been about three weeks since the group had saved Greendale, and they'd settled into a comfortable routine during the summer break. Tuesday nights were reserved for cook-outs at Shirley's house. Thursdays the gang took turns picking which bar to go to, and Saturday night was movie night at Abed and Annie's.

After Pierce died and Troy left, Annie feared that the little family she'd built would drift apart, but instead they'd adopted additional members in Hickey, Duncan and the Dean. Abed's girlfriend, Rachel, would join them when she could as well. Since the near-miss of the Subway-Greendale takeover, occasionally Chang tried to worm his way back into the group's collective heart. They'd take him back, Annie was sure. Eventually.

"And, more importantly, I brought booze," Duncan followed Shirley and Andre into the living room, setting a bottle of Scotch on the table.

"And what did you bring, Jeffrey?" the Dean asked from where he stood near the bar that separated the living room and the kitchen. He placed a hand on Jeff's bicep as he walked by to join the group.

"My winning smile and my six pack abs." The group booed, and Annie threw a small handful of popcorn in Jeff's direction.

"Alright, alright. How 'bout this? I brought money for pizza." Abed paused in his movie search, and, sensing his plan to bring up alternate timelines, Jeff shook his head and said "Shut up, Abed."

"I'll order. Are Rachel and Hickey coming?" Britta asked as she picked up the phone.

"Rachel has to work tonight," Abed responded, pulling a DVD from the shelf.

"And Hickey is visiting his son. He and his husband just got back from their honeymoon," Annie replied as she shoved a few pieces of popcorn in her mouth.

Shirley and Duncan approached the closet and started pulling out the folding lawn chairs Annie had purchased when movie night became a "thing" at their apartment. Jeff took the chair that Shirley handed to him.

"Is this seat taken, milady?" Jeff inquired in that deep, teasing voice he used whenever he called her by the pet name. He began unfolding the chair next to Annie.

Annie continued to struggle with how to appropriately respond to Jeff. They were friends, yes, and she didn't want to do or say anything that could potentially damage that. She found it more and more difficult to find the words to convey friendship and not flirtation since the speech she'd given in the secret computer lab. This proved especially cumbersome when Jeff initiated what Annie herself would have interpreted as flirtation for most of the past five years. Now, Annie reminded herself that his affectionate looks and sporadic "milady's" were a character trait; He flirted because he was Jeff, not because she was Annie, and she dedicated herself to follow-through on her commitment to move on.

"Nope," Annie replied in an amiable but brief manner and popped another piece of popcorn in her mouth.

"So, what nonsense have you got us watching tonight, Abed?" Duncan asked as he poured himself a scotch into one of Abed's Star Wars glasses.

For the past two Saturdays, Abed chose movies based on the events that occurred during the week that affected the group. After the Greendale treasure hunt, he had, of course, picked _The Goonies_. He mouthed the words along with the actors, which Annie found endearing. If movies and television were how he needed to relate to the world around him, Annie would support him in that.

The second week, Abed chose _The Hangover_ in reverence to the Thursday night debacle at Pirates, the bar Britta picked. The group had found themselves in various states of disorientation, both physically and mentally, on Friday morning. Annie had woken up in Shirley's bathtub, clinging to Ben's stuffed elephant. Thankfully the kids were at Shirley's sister's house. Shirley and Andre were nowhere to be found, but Annie did find Duncan, pants-less and wearing only one sock in the hammock in the backyard. Upon locating each other and verifying that everyone was okay, they vowed never to delve into the events of the evening for fear of what they might discover. They also vowed to never again let Britta choose the bar.

Since this week had been fairly (and thankfully) uneventful, Annie was curious as to what Abed had chosen for them to watch.

Abed held up the DVD case and looked in Annie and Jeff's direction.

"_Some Kind of Wonderful_."


End file.
